Pumpkin Crush
by CartoonCaster21
Summary: But then she opened her eyes and was suddenly serious, no longer joking. "Why do you need her code, Gloyd?" He sighed, "Just a tiny tweak…I don't think it could do any harm." "Trust me, Gloyd; you have no idea how fragile these things are. And the programmers have everything the way they wanted it. Don't mess with the program." Gloyd finds the Code Room. Oneshot.


**Experimenting with Sugar Rush couples I support. Please be kind.**

**Pumpkin Crush**

Vanellope's kart was stuck in the chocolate mud puddle. It was thick and rich, giving her great difficulty in pulling it loose. It frustrated her that there was no way to retrieve her kart due to her petite size, needing an elevated assistance. Then again, she could have it come out; it would just take a long time and a second hand.

If only Gloyd would move his molasses.

It was his fault she was in this predicament.

"We shouldn't have raced on this track. It's filled with chocolate pits and syrup spills." Gloyd said from his spot over at his kart. He was leaning against it, completely carless. His eyes fixed on his shoes, every so often turning to see if Vanellope was still struggling.

"It was your idea to race on this track, Pumpkinhead!" Vanellope snapped, glaring at the orange-cladded boy. She was for one, very tired. It had already been fifteen minutes since she crashed her kart, and all he did was change his seating or relaxing positions while she fought to get her kart free of the chocolate. She huffed angrily, spinning to face the brunette, "You know I bet we wouldn't still be here if you'd help me."

He sighed, his eyes half-lidded, looking off towards some caramel-creamed apples. "I bet we would."

She stiffened, her palms forming fists, "Did it ever occur to you to help?"

"Can't say it had, President," he smiled, now looking up at the cotton candy clouds.

That was it; she was ready to scream at him for being so clueless and rude. To his _president_ to boot! This was worse than his annoying, childish pranks. Not that she could expect much respect anyways from someone who had the word _boar _in their name.

She stomped out of the mud, walking over to Gloyd, her hazel eyes glaring him down which visually made him uncomfortable. Easily seen how in the first time in those fifteen minutes, he stood up straight, fully awake.

"Listen up, Orangeboar," she started, poking him in the chest, "it was _your_ stupid idea to go racing–"

He smirked, "You didn't think it was so stupid this morning."

She towered over, which was a lot to say considering how his hat added on the extra height, "That was this _morning_…its well noon…and since it was _your_ idea to race on this fudgin' track and _you're_ the one who even smashed into my kart and had me lose control, _you_ better help get my kart out of that chocolate or I'll be happy to stick _you_ in that pit too!"

Gloyd smiled nervously, holding his hands up in defeat, "Alright, alright! No need to get your pixels in a bunch! I'll help!"

She backed off and huffed, "'Bout time,"

The two headed back over to the large chocolate-filled pit, Vanellope's kart not moving one inch deeper or any sign that the chocolate would release it. Gloyd grabbed one side of the kart, Vanellope the other. The two hauled and pulled as hard as they could, only achieving in getting the sticky substance all over themselves, loosing footing in the thick treat.

"You know, why don't I help on your side?" Gloyd offered, climbing out of the pit.

"No," Vanellope disagreed, wadding over to him. "Get back on your side."

"Van, this's not working. Can't you accept that?"

"I know, how 'bout I push your kart in the muck? That'll make it even and we can just walk away."

"…That's not what I meant at all."

"Get a taste of your half of the popsicle."

"Let me just help on your side–"

"I already said no–"

Vanellope tried to reach out but slipped. Gloyd grabbed onto her sweatshirt, long enough to grab something out of her pocket before purposely letting go, making it seem like he lost grip. She tumbled into the chocolate, glicthing upon impact.

"Oh, perfect!" she muttered, trying to sit properly in the muddy mess.

Gloyd pulled away, quickly hiding the thing into his own pocket inside his racing jacket. "You know what?" he offered, backing away, "We need more help. I'll go get the donut cops. I bet they'll be able to help. Be back soon!"

Before Vanellope could even fit in a word, Gloyd was running down the cinnamon path back towards the sugar cube castle as fast as his little legs could go. Vanellope watched him leave before sighing in defeat. Eyeing off where her fellow racer had gone, she wondered mischievously, "Hmm…"

~.~.~.~.~

Gloyd watched the donut cops run off towards the track where he informed Vanellope was. He quickly explained the situation that the two were racing and took a wrong turn, ending in Vanellope and her kart now crashed in a pit of chocolate. They hurried off right after that.

With them gone, Gloyd was able to sneak into the castle unnoticed…for a few minutes before he was noticed.

"Orangeboar…" a worn voice drawled.

Gloyd whipped around, to face that moody sour gumdrop, Sour Bill. He quickly plastered on an innocent look, throwing his hands behind his back with a usual smile.

"H-Hi, Sour Bill!"

Sour Bill didn't even bother greeting the child, getting straight to the point, "Next time you come into the castle…would you mind whipping your feet first?"

Gloyd looked down to notice he had created a chocolate trail from the door to the throne room. He sighed in relief, nodding towards the candy. "Yeah, sure, sorry…"

"Mmhm," Sour Bill nodded before pulling out a sponge from magically nowhere, turning his back on the racer to clean up the footprints in an amazingly slow motion that it caused Gloyd to yawn.

He blinked a few times before quietly, yet quickly, turning around and heading up the steps to the throne and behind the curtains.

A bright light shone, the salmon colour now gone and all candy-built items, replaced with a metal-like material like what GCS was made from. He walked a little further before coming to the door he had always dreamed of seeing ever since Vanellope had told them of it.

That was her first mistake, telling Taffyta and Candlehead about how Turbo took over their game. Her second mistake, telling them outside where anyone could be. Now…even though the three were in the Candy Cane Forest, Gloyd was always one for mischief and eavesdropping was defiantly part of his job.

Gloyd dug into his inside racing jacket's pocket, pulling out the thing he swiped from Vanellope. His pickpocket talent was something he was most surly proud of. He held up the old _Tapper's _napkin, opening it to reveal _the_ legendary _Konami Code_ known throughout arcades. He couldn't believe he was holding a copy of it. No matter how Turbo had gotten it, he didn't care; just happy it would now be useful.

At least useful for him.

He quickly popped in the code, watching as the console-like door opened.

The napkin fell to the floor at his feet, having subconsciously dropping it. His jaw was slightly agape while his chestnut-brown eyes were wide, marveling the sight before him.

It was a pitch black void with millions of brightly coloured neon signs, each reading a name he recognized from his game with a picture to sport the name. Wires of similar colours extended from each neon tag.

He looked away from the amazing sight to look at the ledge he was standing on. Shuffling slowly, he took a breath before leaping into the code room. Gravity seemed to have left as he floated, swimming over closer to the middle of the codes. He knew how this worked; most important characters were featured more in the centre while background characters – such as their mindless candy fans – just circled around, so he could leave those tags alone.

Coming closer, a purplish pink sign came into view, reading _Racers_.

He tapped it.

Instantly, the delicate sign opened, dividing into fifteen different multi-coloured neon codes. He was slightly startled but easily smiled at this. Now he could find who he was looking for.

With great care, he swam around the codes, cautious not to pull any wires or to kick them, knowing how that could greatly affect the racer, damaging their code like that. They could become a glitch, or _worse_…

"Taffyta, no…let's see, Adorabeezle, nope…um, here's Rancis, Swizzle, no, no…the recolours, not it…where could she be…?" he swam further in, always looking back in case any wires wrapped around his foot. Last thing he wanted to do in here was to rip any codes loose…

"No…no…let's see, erm…_ah-ha!_"

Gloyd smiled happily as he floated before a red neon sign, a small picture of the racer in the upper left corner, her name written neatly across the code.

_Jubileena Bing Bing_

He knew he shouldn't mess with her code. He knew he shouldn't even be in here. Heck, he knew he shouldn't have even been eavesdropping when Vanellope told her friends. But when he happened to be in the Candy Cane Forest those weeks ago, he couldn't resist. He had to pull a prank on them. But when he neared and heard the conversation of Turbo – and more importantly – the _code room_, he saw it as maybe his chance.

With a sigh, he lightly tapped her code.

It opened, revealing everything about Jubileena from her creation in the real world to her personality, likes, dislikes, friendships, sweetness, speed and racing details.

Once again, his eyes went wide with awe. He was actually capable of so much right now. He could do whatever he wanted, being in the code room. He looked around, watching as information rolled up, pictures and details. He could change anything.

For some reason, he hesitated. He wasn't sure why. He's waiting for almost fifteen years for a chance such as this, and now that he had it…he was _hesitating?_

"What am I doing…?" Gloyd mumbled, but somehow she had heard him.

"You tricked me, then stole the code from me, then sent off the donut cops for no reason needed, then snuck into my castle and into the code room which, may I remind you is _forbidden_, Orangeboar,"

Gloyd yelped spinning around to face a very crossed-looking Vanellope, floating right in front of him with a red licorice string tied around her waist.

"H-how did you…?"

Vanellope rolled her eyes, "You're not very smart, are you, Candy Corn?" He raised a brow, therefor she continued, "You pushed me back in the chocolate for a reason, and let's face it, why would you ask me to race with you when we all know there's another racer you'd rather be with?" she smirked seeing his naturally orange cheeks deepen, "Not to mention when I arrived back at the castle. Unless someone else was taking a dip in chocolate today, your footprints gave a lot away. Sour Bill is so slow, and I realized the code was missing from my pocket, so I figured out you stole it."

She held up the folded napkin before his eyes.

"You're…not mad?" he asked.

"Well," Vanellope started, tucking the napkin away inside her sweatshirt, "I'll admit I was pretty damn annoyed at first. But I know you all by now, and you for one only do things for two reasons: one to get a good laugh outta your lame pranks, or you really needed something but was too much of a 'boy' to admit anything."

Gloyd said nothing. She had a pretty good point. If anything, he would've thought she'd been picking at his code.

She shook her head in fake disappointment, "Tut, tut, Marmalade for Brains, very sloppy work. Your president isn't pleased." He chuckled. But then she opened her eyes and was suddenly serious, no longer joking. "Why do you need her code, Gloyd?"

He sighed, "Just a tiny tweak…I don't think it could do any harm."

"Trust me, Gloyd; you have no idea how fragile these things are. And the programmers have everything the way they wanted it. Don't mess with the program."

She floated over, tapping Jubileena's code once more, closing it to its original blank sign with her picture on it. Gloyd looked at the picture, rather disappointed in hearing this, that all this had been for nothing.

"I just like her so much," he admitted. "I just wanted her to like me back."

Vanellope turned to face the brunette, "Gloyd, you don't have to change her code so she could like you."

"I just wanted to add it in," he said a little too quickly, "I really, really like her…but I have no way to prove it to her unless I change her code…"

The raven candy-haired president placed a small hand on her friend's shoulder. He looked up at her with sad eyes, "No way to prove? Gloyd, you crashed the president's kart, pushed her off into a chocolate pit, pickpocketed a crazy code, sent the cops on a meaningless chase, came to my castle uninvited, and hacked the game's code for her. I mean, besides the part where you were going to change her code to make you her boyfriend, it's pretty sweet."

A small smile stretched at his lips, "Thanks, sorry for all this. Guess it was pretty stupid, huh?"

"Oh yeah," she agreed. "I'd punch you, but there's all these codes flying around so…" Without warning, she grabbed his arm and began to pull the two back to the ledge. Once they had made it past the maze of neon signs, she closed the console door, hiding them away. Once the door sealed, she punched Gloyd in the arm.

"Ow!"

"Don't you know not to go in there without this around your waist? Seriously, I have to teach you so much!"

He chuckled, rubbing his arm as she placed the licorice rope away, hanging it on a handle close to the console door.

"Hey, Vanel,"

"Yes?"

"You think I have a shot with Jubileena?"

She stood there in thought, turning around to face him. There was a silence that had Gloyd shift slightly. The sweatshirt-wearing racer suddenly grinned, placing her hands on her hips, "I think you should pull the trigger on that shot already, something tells me you two would make a cute couple."

"Really? What should I do? How should I ask her?"

"Whoa, there Orangetop, why not start slow? A simple off-track racing, maybe?"

Gloyd smiled, giving a single nod.

~.~.~.~.~

"Hey, uh, Jubileena?"

The cherry-themed girl looked up, surprised to hear a voice. She was currently fixing up _The Cherriot _by her house for the next Random Roster Race this coming Sunday evening. She didn't expect anyone coming to find her, since there was nothing even going on today.

She was especially surprised to see Gloyd standing there.

"Oh uh, hi, Gloyd," Jubileena smiled, wiping her hands on her red ruffled skirt. "What's up?"

"Nothing much just – well I wanted to know if you wanna go off-track racing? Practice new tricks or something?"

She didn't reply right away, a little taken back by the sudden question. She usually didn't hang out much with the boys, so she was flattered really to be asked. Especially since her recolour – Citrusella – was actually a better racer then she was.

"Why?" she asked though with a light smile gracing her lips.

"Practice, y'know? And I wanted to know if you'd be interested." Gloyd grinned.

She walked up a little closer to the Halloween-obsessed boy, sending a smirk his way, "Alright, I'll practice with you. But it's gonna cost ya!"

He rolled his eyes in a friendly manner, "What do I have to do?"

"I only grow cherries," she gestured to her cherry-themed house, her cherry syrup mini pond beneath a cherry-dripping gummy tree. "I make cherry pies all the time. But I just been willing to try to make some _pumpkin_ pie, of course, you own the pumpkin patch."

He chuckled, "Alright, no problem. I'll let you have a pumpkin…_if _you beat me in a race. How 'bout we race to my pumpkin patch right now?" He challenged.

Jubileena punched Gloyd lightly in the arm, grinning happily, "You're on, Gloydie!"

"_Vanellope von Schweetz, Match Maker_, has a nice ring to it, don't'cha think?" Vanellope smiled from behind a large gumdrop. She kneeled down, looking over to Rancis who she had to drag along to this eavesdropping.

"Careful, Nellie, think you're getting a little too ahead of yourself?" Rancis winked, popping another chocolate piece into his mouth.

"No, as a matter of fact, I don't." Vanellope smiled, sitting down next to the blonde. "Admit it, they're a cute couple."

"Guys don't admit stuff like that." Rancis replied, unwrapping another chocolate piece.

"Believe me, Pretty Boy, I know." She said, rolling her eyes, "But as much as you're all a rough wrapper on the outside, your just soft candy on the inside."

"_Now_ you're getting ahead of yourself."

"Maybe," she shrugged, "but you have to agree, I'm mostly right."

"Sure you are, V. What were you right about?"

"Well, Gloyd and Jubileena are off racing together now thanks to me, and Minty and Swizzle have been dating already for a couple weeks and things are as smooth as peanut butter for them," then she looked over to Rancis, taking his hand in hers, "and I was right about us too,"

He scoffed, "Okay, Vanellope, so you're some kinda freak match maker,"

"That's _President _Freak Match Maker,"

"Now _that _has a nice ring to it." Rancis smirked.

"Oh shut up, Butterfingers."

**A/N: Gloyd and Jubileena, I like to call it Cherry Pumpkin. I know few a my friends like the idea, unsure any others out there. Also involved hint a Mint Swirl (MintyxSwizzle) and obvious Vanilla Butter in the end.**

**Please comment. No flames. Constructive criticism always welcomed. Thanks for taking the time to read :)**


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